The Division: Gear Score - How to Maximize?

Gear Score was added to The Division in one of the updates. It’s an indicator of the quality of your items. When you reach level 30 you no longer see level of your items, you see GS value instead. This article will tell how to get armor with highest Gear Score in The Division.

Gear Score is calculated as average GS value of all items you have equipped. This system is very similar to what you can see in World of Warcraft MMO. Though this number represents the quality of your items it doesn’t directly affect your power. In other words if a player has GS 215 he is not necessarily more powerful than a player with GS 210. It’s not modifier of your power, it’s an indicator of items quality! But in the most cases the more GS you have the more powerful you are.

What’s the primary reason to equip items with higher GS?

The first reason is of course power. You will most likely become more powerful. Though this number doesn’t affect your strength directly, many items with higher GS are stronger.

The second reason is because some end-game activities require player to have certain amount of GS. For example Broken Circle incursion requires minimum GS 220 to access the mission. If you have lower value you simply will not be able to play. And this reason for gearing up is the most important.

How to Maximize GS?

The only way is to equip items with highest Gear Score you can find. You need to start farming Hard Mode activities to gear up for Challenging activities because they have GS requirement.

Incursions (Hard Mode)

Completing an Incursion on Hard Mode for the first time in a week will guarantee GS 214 Armor. It’s a weekly reward.

Completing incursion on Hard Mode for the second, third, fourth and so on time will give you GS 191 Armor. This will be a boss drop. You can farm this as many times as you wish.

Incursions (Challenging Mode)

Completing an Incursion on Challenging Mode for the first time in a week will guarantee GS 240 Armor. It’s a weekly reward. Right now this is the only way of obtaining 240 armor pieces.

Completing incursion on Challenging Mode for the second, third, fourth and so on time will give you GS 214 Armor. This will be a boss drop. You can farm this as many times as you wish.

Farming Incursions is not the only way of getting 214 items. You can also craft them using blueprints of Special Gear Vendor. They cost 300 – 400 Phoenix Credits each but it’s a very good way for getting started.

You can farm high GS items by killing named bosses in Dark Zone. Sometimes they drop something really valuable, gear set pieces for example (up to 214 GS).

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